Denmark Mountain Hikers

Hike Report –

Eighteen Denmark Mountain Hikers gathered at the trailhead for the climb to Arethusa Falls on a warm morning with clearing skies. Hiking today were: Jeff Sturgis, Robin Marciello, Jacob Schor, Phil Johnson, Tina Estes, John Patrick, Fred Muratore, Kathy Huchthausen, Rick Dennen, Susan Gassett, Dale and Kitty Nelson, Jane Gibbons, Susan Sedita, Barbara Dunham, David Atchason, Liz Hurd and Allison Cooke.

This hike is very popular and the trail is fairly wide, but very rocky ( what some of our hikers call boney) and rooty due to the heavy use it gets, After the recent rains, it was damp and wet in some spots but not excessively slippery.

We hit the trail at 10:00 am after our trailhead picture, deciding to stick to the main trail and not detour to the Bemis Trail that loops off to the left a little above the trailhead. We made steady progress as the sun came out and reached the junction where the Bemis Trail rejoins the main trail at 10:35 am. The trail rises fairly consistently, crosses two bridges and, shortly after the junction with the Frankenstein Cliff and Ripley Falls Trail to the right, it descends steadily to the base of Arethusa Falls. As we climbed, we caught up with Polly Lombardi and her friend, Karen Horowitz, who had started earlier up the trail.

We arrived at the falls at 11:30 am, covering the 1.5 miles from the trailhead at a 1 mph pace. The banks of the Bemis Brook that emerges from the bottom of the falls are fairly steep and rocky, but we were each able to find comfortable niches for lunch. The recent rain had worked its magic by sending a good volume of water over the falls. The morning sun struck the water just right, illuminating the falls in a glistening display.

We spent a most pleasant half hour enjoying the falls, each other and eating our lunches. Around noon we took our group picture and started our return to the parking lot.

The return was uneventful but very pleasant as we descended the trail in seventy degree weather. We reached our vehicles at 1:20 pm after a most enjoyable hike. The trail descriptions list the distance out and back as 3 miles. However, Robin’s fitness tracker reported the distance as 3.5 miles. Obviously, we decided the 3.5 miles was our “official”